Treatment of textile materials comprising organic derivatives of cellulose



Patented Mar. 15, 1938 UNITED STATES TREATMENT OF. TEXTILE MATERIALS (L'Olll- PRISING ORGANIC DERIVATIVES OF CEL- LULOSE Herbert Platt and Alvin W. B ergeron, Cumberland, M11, assignors to Celanese Corporation of America; a corporation of Delaware No Drawing. Application'November 20, 1931 Serial N0. 576,424

14 Claims.

This inventionrelates to improvements in the treatment of materials composed of or containing organic derivatives of cellulose and relates particularly to a process whereby the lustre of such material may be reduced to any desired degree.

An object of our invention is to provide a me d for delustering textile materials containing organic derivatives of cellulose in a cheap and expeditious manner. A further object of our in- 10 vention is to employ pine oil or similar acting substances as a delustering medium for such ma- -terial. Other objects of our invention will appear from the following detailed description.

For various purposes it is often' of great ad- 15 vantage to reduce or destroy the lustre of materials containing organic derivatives of cellulose. However in the selection of a method it is important that the materials being delustered should not be affected deleteriously, that is to say it should not be weakened to too great an extent and also that streakiness should not be developed in the material. Moreover thedelustering agent should be low in cost in order that the process of delustering be commercially feasible.

25 We have found that solutions or dispersions of pine oil or similar acting substances meet all of these requirements as a, delustering agent for materials comprising organic derivatives of cellulose. By the use of pine oil and the like, the ma- 30 terial is not weakened appreciably, the deluster effect is level without the production of streaks of unequally delustered portions, and the delustering process admits of a very good control-of the de-' gree of delustering.

tains terpene alcohols such as terpineol, as the delustering medium, other similar substances such as turpentine oil, or materials containing terpene.

hydrocarbons such as limonene, sylvestrene, 40 pinene, camphene, dipentiene or the esters of the alcohols of these terpene hydrocarbons such as bornyl acetate, may be employed.

' The pine oil or similar acting material is preferably employed in the form of an emulsion or dis- 45 persion in water, soap being employed as the dis-" persing agent. The amount of pine oil employed.

in the delustering bath may be from 0.1 to 25 grams per litre of bath. The concentration of to and including the boiling point of water, but 55 we have found it most advantageous to maintain 05 While we prefer to employ pine oil, which con-- (01. 28-1) the delustering-bathat the temperatures of th order of Z5 to 100 C.

The pine oil delustering agent may be applied to the material by any suitable means. For example, in the case of fabrics, the fabric may .be 5

immersed in the bath by means of strings or it may be treated on a winch. An important feature of the use of pine oil is that it makes it possible to obtain satisfactory delustering of fabrics on a jig. Fabrics may be treated with the delustering bath by means of 2. padding mangle or by brushing or spraying. The. suspension of the pine oil may be thickened by starches and other thickening agents and the same may be padded on or applied by all over engraved rollers to the fabric,

after which it is aged by steam. If desired, pattern effects may be obtained by suitable means such as by means of engraved or embossed rollers or by local application to the material to be treated by means of suitable resists or by stencllling.

The material may be colored by the application; in conjunction with the delusteringtreatment, of suitable dyestuffs, for instance dispersed waterinsoluble dyestufis. The dyestufis may be applied to the material before, after or during the delustering treatment.

After completion of the delustering treatment,

the material is preferably well rinsed to remove pine oil or similar acting substances. Where dimculty is experienced in removing the last traces of pine oil and the like, treatment with a scouring agent suitablefor use in conjunction with materials comprising organic derivatives of cellulose may be employed with advantage, and an example ,of such scouring agent being a dispersion of xylene in Turkey red oil.

In order further to illustrate our invention, but withoutbeing limited thereto, the following specific examples are given. I 40 Example I Cellulose acetate woven fabric, previously scoured in a normal manner, is suspended by the selvedge in folded form in a bath-containing an aqueous dispersion of pine oil in amounts of 15 grams per litre of .water dispersed by soap which is present in amounts of '5 grams per litre. The fabric is treated in this bath for hour at 87 C. after which it is lifted, rinsed well and dried. If desired the fabric maybe dyed before drying. A well delustered fabric is obtained.

Example ll" T I A fabric consisting wholly of cellulose acetate Example Ill A woven fabric consisting of cellulose acetate yarn is subjected to an aqueous bath containing 2 grams of pine oil per-litre and 8 grams of soap per litre for 2 hours at 99 C, The fabric is delustered in a very satisfactory manner.

Any desired treating agent may be applied to the material in conjunction with the application of the pine oil or similar acting substances. Besides soap, sulfonated oils and other wetting, dispersing or cleansing agents may be applied before, after and during the treatment. Thus the material may, with advantage, be treated prior to or during the application of the pine oil with a solution of Turkey red oil in xylene. Such treatment may improve the properties of the material in various ways, for example, it may improve the hand or feel and substantially increase thecoemcient of friction of the individual filaments or fibres of the material and so reduce any tendency towards slipping or laddering. Treatment with the said reagent after the delustering operation provides a readymeans of removing any pine oil remaining therein. Besides soap, other alkali material, such as soda ash, sodium hydroxide and the like may be present in the delustering bath. but the alkalinity of the solution and the time of treatment should be so controlled so as to avoid any undesiredte or deleterious action upon the cellulose es 1'.

Although this invention may be applied with particular advantage to materials comprising cellulose acetate, it is in' no sense limited in application thereto, but is generally applicable to filaments, threads, fibres, ribbons, straws, fabrics, films and the like composed of or containing organic derivatives of cellulose in general, for example cellulose formate, cellulose propionate, cellulose butyrate and methyl cellulose, ethyl cellulose and benzyl cellulose.

It is tobe understood that the foregoing detailed description is given merely by way of illustration and that many variations may be made therein without departing from the spirit of our invention- Having described our invention, what we claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. Process of reducing the lustre of materials comprising organic derivatives of cellulose which comprises treating said materials with hot aqueous media in the presence of a terpene alcohol. 2. Process of reducing the lustre of materials comprising cellulose acetate which comprises treating said materials with hot aqueous media in the presence of a terpene alcohol.

3. Process of reducing the lustre of materials comprising organic derivatives of cellulose which comprises treating said materials with hot aqueous media in the.presence of terpineol.

4. Process of reducing the lustre of materials comprising cellulose acetate which comprises treating said materials with hot aqueous media in the presence of terpineol.

5. Process of reducing the lustre of materials comprising organic derivatives of cellulose which comprises treating said materials with hot aqueous media in the presence of a terpene alcohol, said alcohol being present in an amount less than based on the weight of the treating media.

6. Process of reducing the lustre of materials comprising cellulose acetate which comprises treating said materials-with hot'aqueous media in the presence of a terpene alcohol, said alcohol being present in an amount less than 5% based on the weight of the treating media.

7. Processor reducing the lustre of materials containing organic derivatives of cellulose which comprises treating said materials with an emulsion of terpineol at elevated temperatures, said terpineol being present in an amount less than 5% based on the weight of the treating media. 8. Process of reducing the lustre of materials comprising organic derivatives of cellulose which comprises treating said materials with hot aqueous media in the presence of a terpene alcohol and then removing said substance.

9. Process of reducing the lustre of materials comprising cellulose acetate which comprises treating said materials with hot aqueous media in the presence of a terpene alcohol and then removing said substance.

10. Process of reducing the lustre of fabrics containing yarns of organic derivatives of cellulose comprising'treating said fabric on a jig with an aqueous dispersion of terpineol while at elevated temperatures. 1

11; Process. of reducing the lustre of fabrics containingyarns of cellulose acetate comprising treating said fabricv on a jig with an aqueous dispersion of terpineol while at elevated temperatures.

12. Process of reducing the lustre of materials comprising organic derivatives of cellulom which comprises treating said materials with hot aqueous media in the presence of terpineol, said terpineol being present in an amount less than 5% based on the weight of the treating media.-

13. Process of reducing the lustre of materials comprising cellulose acetate which comprises treating said materials with hot aqueous media in the presence of terpineol, said terpineol being present in an amount less than 5% based on the weight of the treating media.

14. A composition for producing ornamental efi'ects on fabrics including cellulose acetate, comprising a starch, at least one other thickening agent and pine oil.

HERBERT PLA'I'I. ALVIN W. BERGERON 

